A DNA chip is a tool to profile gene polymorphism and variance of mRNA expression levels, and is currently used in wide research fields. Proteins which are final products obtained by translating mRNA which transfer genomic information bear momentarily changing vital phenomena. Thus, it has been believed that more useful information than the information obtained by profiling the mRNA is obtained from the protein, and techniques for proteome analysis which analyzes the protein exhaustively have been actively developed.
In such an actual circumstance, if a system where a protein is captured on a substrate and efficiently characterized is completed, it is estimated that the system will be a new technology which is superior to conventional analytical methods for the proteome using two dimensional electrophoresis or liquid chromatography in terms of scale and cost. Up to now, antibody chips have been developed as the chip which targets the proteome analysis. The antibody chip is the tool where many antibodies are immobilized on chip surfaces and amounts of antigens which interact with the immobilized antibodies, respectively are profiled. The antibody chips were developed later than DNA chips, but their practical application in the wide fields such as drug discovery, toxicity tests or pathological diagnosis in the future is anticipated because the variance of the proteins can be directly analyzed.
A transcription factor is deeply involved in cellular inflammatory response, carcinogenesis and transcription controlling factor activation because it is the protein which is bound to a region called an element sequence in an upstream region of each gene and regulates the expression of various genes. Therefore, it is very important to, at a protein level, profile various transcription factors which keep biological activity.
Conventionally, the transcription factor has been analyzed by a technique using acrylamide gel electrophoresis using a radioisotope called a gel shift assay, but the technique is problematic in throughput and safety, and it is believed that it is difficult to apply to future proteomic techniques.
The present invention intends to provide a technology to efficiently profile the transcription factor.